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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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Hmm. Maybe it has to do with how good one thinks central control already is, and how easy it is to establish a panopticon, versus how difficult to break that same panopticon? One's views on the general fragility or anti-fragility of social institutions? ...I guess this is a general request for an effort-post on "why things are likely going to go badly, in Dase's view". I'm pretty sure I agree with you that Yudkowski and his ilk are a greater threat than AI, but it seems to me that the threat is fairly manageable, while you seem to think it's all-but-inevitably going to get us. The_Nybbler has a similar take on wokeness generally, seeing it as practically invincible, rather than eminently defeatable; all I can conclude is that we have very, very different priors.

The go-to pivotal action to avoid torture, on the other hand, is obvious enough and reliable.

There's a shortage of extraordinarily well-put-together brains in the world, sir. T'would be a pity to ruin yours.

To be clear, I do not fear Eliezer Yudkowsky or any other doomer. I think that for all the messianic ambition they are chiefly neurotic fools whose narratives are promoted and mainstreamed by people who've long been interested in what our departed friend JB called «power singularity» – just for good measure, to protect children and terrorists and such, you know the script; and who in turn may be the relatively well-intentioned party here.

Noted.